Early jazz recommendations?

June 4, 2008 8:46 PM

What are some of the earliest jazz recordings that I absolutely need to get?

A bit of background: I'm a swing dancer. There are a lot of others in my area (Rochester, NY). We dance to wonderful jazz music all the time. Unfortunately we dance so much that we don't often have a chance to sit down and really listen to the music. I'd like to try to remedy that by hosting some jazz listening-only (no dancing) parties.

I think I'd like to structure the parties by date at first, and since this will be the first one I'd like to start with the early roots of jazz. I don't know as much about this era since we don't dance to a lot of its music. That's where you come in: I need some recommendations for pre-jazz and very early jazz recordings that really show where the style originated.

I'm planning on the party lasting two to four hours so I'll be playing a couple of songs from each album at a time. I'm pretty resourceful about finding recordings and vinyl doesn't scare me, so feel free to recommend anything that comes to mind. Thanks!

posted by sjl7678 to media & arts (17 comments total)

Other people will have better (and earlier) suggestions, but I love love love Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five (and later, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven).
posted by ethel at 9:03 PM on June 4

another, this time Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. just discovered this youtube phenomenon of folks videotaping a 78rpm player playin tunes. LOVE IT!
posted by ethel at 9:07 PM on June 4

Check out some slow ragtime piano solos by Scott Joplin - they're amazing. Pineapple Rag comes to mind...
posted by kdern at 9:33 PM on June 4

Fletcher Henderson was making music in the early teens and twenties, and he's definitely got some fun tunes. Sidney Bechet is also good quality, but he's a little later. He has some stuff from the 20s, 30s and 40s.
posted by twirlypen at 9:38 PM on June 4

Bix Beiderbecke Vol. 2 At The Jazz Band Ball, on Columbia. Or, frankly, anything else you can find of his.
posted by gyusan at 9:52 PM on June 4

King Oliver
Count Basie
Eubie Blake
Duke

Jelly Roll Morton and Bessie Smith on the blues side of things.
posted by rhizome at 10:50 PM on June 4

That sounds like a swell party! Here are some suggestions:
• Jelly Roll Morton (e.g. Original Jelly Roll Blues)
• King Oliver (e.g. Edna)
• Bessie Smith (here's some pretty great footage of her singing St. Louis Blues)
• Duke Ellington (e.g. Cotton Tail - quality is not so great on this one, but it's a fantastic song! And here is some history on the video.)
• Count Bassie (e.g. One • O'Clock Jump)
• Chick Webb (e.g. Soft and Sweet)
• Earl Hines (e.g. Deep Forest)
• Artie Shaw (e.g. Everything is Jumpin')
• Andrews Sisters (e.g. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy)

A lot of early jazz so fantastic. I don't know how you'll all stay in your seats!
posted by numinous at 10:55 PM on June 4

Nthing the Hot Fives and Sevens - this is the set I have, and I love it.
posted by jbickers at 4:01 AM on June 5

Some of what you seek can be found at the Roots Music Listening Room.
posted by caddis at 4:05 AM on June 5 [2 favorites]

I was also going to suggest the Hot Fives and Sevens.

WAMU in Wash DC has a great show hosted, every Saturday night, by Rob Bamberger, called Hot Jazz Saturday Night. There appears to be a stream on the website of last week's show. Not only is the music really fabulous, but Bamberger knows a lot about it and is able to talk about it in a way that's appealing. It's a great way to learn about early jazz.
posted by OmieWise at 4:36 AM on June 5

My father is a fan of early jazz and a while back I wasted plenty of time on eBay etc getting him the set of Robert Parker's Jazz Classics in Digital Stereo. Parker, a sound engineer and enthusiastic collector of early jazz records, souped up lots of old 78 and made a radio series broadcast on the BBC (now available to listen to here). Albums were released under the BBC label and also another, including a best-of CD called "Introduction to Jazz Classics" I think. My father's faves are probably Johnny Dodds and Fletcher Henderson.
posted by boudicca at 8:47 AM on June 5

Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7 are must-haves for the devoted jazz fan. Lots of other good suggestions here. I love jazz!
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:51 AM on June 5

Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7 are must-haves for the devoted jazz fan.

Indeed, but since everybody's suggested them, I want to reinforce the votes for Jelly Roll Morton, whose claim to have invented jazz was (like many of his claims) hyperbolic, but whose music is undeniably great—his recordings with the Red Hot Peppers are as great as the Armstrongs and provide a perfect summing-up of the ensemble-oriented early jazz style that Armstrong destroyed with his brilliant soloing (much as Babe Ruth destroyed classic baseball technique with his awe-inspiring homers around the same time). There's a nice cheap 5-CD set on JSP, remastered by John R. T. Davies. Listen and enjoy! (Also, don't miss Mister Jelly Roll by Alan Lomax, full of Jelly Roll's wide-ranging and irresistible reminiscences; the 2001 edition adds an afterword updating the historical information, but the original 1950 edition is online here.)
posted by languagehat at 11:22 AM on June 5

Oh, and Yazoo Records has a wonderful pair of discs called Jazz The World Forgot, Jazz Classics of the 1920s (Vol. 1, Vol. 2). Lots of stuff you can't find anywhere else, and it's terrific music (not to mention, who can resist bands like Louis Dumaine's Jazzola Eight, Roy Johnson's Happy Pals, or the Pickett-Parham Apollo Syncopaters?).
posted by languagehat at 11:27 AM on June 5

Er, and if you get interested enough, you'll want to read Gunther Schuller's Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development (and then his followup The Swing Era—he's been promising to follow the story into the '50s for decades now, dammit!). Sorry, I just love this music too much to stay away!
posted by languagehat at 11:32 AM on June 5

It may not be what you're looking for, but for someone looking for an intro, The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is the place to start--if you can find a copy.
posted by neuron at 1:16 PM on June 5

I'd hate to think that Django Reinhardt is too late for you, but if others can mention Artie Shaw....
posted by IndigoJones at 5:19 PM on June 5